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In linguistics usage, when distinguishing between southern and northern dialects in the Middle Dutch language, Diets meant southern language usage, whilst for northern features the term Duutsch was used. However, in other contexts these words were used as synonyms. They can stand equally well for Middle Dutch in general as for Germanic contrasted with Romance languages.

'Diets' came from the Middle Dutch word diet, which meant 'people'. It is related to the Gothic word 'thiuda' (with the same meaning).

'Diets' is often confused with 'Duits', the modern Dutch word for German, and indeed in the Dutch language of the 16th and 17th centuries 'duits' and 'diets' were variant spellings of the same word, which usually is translated as Dutch (of the Dutch people) in modern Dutch.

The forms 'duits' and 'diets' originated as follows: the oldest Dutch (and German) form of the word is 'diut'; this led to the variants 'diet' and 'duut', and the adjectives 'diets' and 'duuts'. The latter form in Dutch changed to 'Duits' Dutch vowel shift: the 'u' became the diphthong 'ui'). 'Duits' is still used in Dutch to refer to the German people and language, but the word 'diets', as well as the use of 'Duits' to refer to the Dutch people and Dutch language has fallen out of use. The word can still be found however in the expression iemand iets diets maken, which means to explain (or make believe) somebody something (by explaining it in the common language, i.e. Diets and not Latin).

Another reason 'Diets' is no longer used in modern Dutch is that the term was abused by 20th century fascists of the NSB and other nationalistsNationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. Nationalists base nations on various notions of political legitimacy. These can derive from the Romantic theory of " cultural identity",, usually in the terms 'Diets', 'Nederdiets', or 'Nederduits' to refer to the shared heritage of the Dutch and German people.

A historical remnant of the original meaning of 'Duits' to refer to the people of the Netherlands, rather than the people of Germany, can still be seen in first line of the Dutch National anthemWilhelmus van Nassouwe ("William of Nassau") is the national anthem of the Netherlands. The name is often abbreviated to 'Het Wilhelmus' The William [viz. The text was written somewhere between 1568 and 1572, in honour of William of Orange (also known as:

"Wilhelmus van Nassauwe / Ben ik van Duitsen bloed" ( William of NassauWilliam I, Prince of Orange Count of Nassau ( April 24, 1533 July 10, 1584) was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. A wealthy n / Am I of Dutch blood)

See also: Dutch (disambiguation)The word Dutch when used alone, has several possible meanings in the English language. Most, if not all, of these meanings are in reference to the European country the Netherlands, its people, or its culture. The term Dutch when used by itself can refer t.